ABSTRACT
"Politics is in command of the curriculum," said an official at Peking Normal University. China is committed to socialist development; education is an instrument of national policy. In contrast to the highly decentralized system of education in the United States, questions of how much education for whom and in what form are policies decided "at the highest levels" of the State Council. Education is a matter of national politics. The important symbols are of course the truck with its implications for modernization and grain which reflects the importance of the agricultural base as the source of national wealth. However, it is clear that political symbols are an integral aspect of the school environment and, further, that political symbols form a significant part of the content of the Chinese curriculum. Thus, political education in the formal sense draws upon a wide range of social supports and forms an enduring aspect of the total curriculum.
